The true perversion, though, is the sense you get that all of this illicitness has been tossed in as a little something for the ladies, out of a justifiable fear, perhaps, that no woman alive would watch otherwise. While I do not doubt that there are women in the world who read books like Mr. Martin’s, I can honestly say that I have never met a single woman who has stood up in indignation at her book club and refused to read the latest from Lorrie Moore unless everyone agreed to “The Hobbit” first. “Game of Thrones” is boy fiction patronizingly turned out to reach the population’s other half.

It’s quite obvious this reviewer has never read the books. If she did, she would have understood how George R. R. Martin treats the female characters in the series. He portrayed them with respect and his female characters are multi-faceted. Many of the major characters are female and many are characterized as stronger, smarter or clever than their male counterparts. Most importantly, these female characters are deeply integral to the core of the story.

Ms. Bellafante might have found out by now that there are many women out there who read and like fantasy and its cousin science fiction from all the hate mails and internet backlash she got after this review. Since Ms. Bellafante claims to not know a single woman who reads or enjoys reading Game of Thrones  or The Hobbit or any of the glorious fantasy novels, she needs to meet more women – ones who are comfortable with chick lit and fantasy equally or even ones who prefer The Wheel of Time over Bridget Jone’s Diaries. Women who don’t have an issue with books in which there’s too much fighting or the primary character is not female or the story line isn’t about shopping. To put it plainly, women who enjoy being called geeks or nerds and women who are very comfortable with themselves. Yes, nerd pride!

George R. R. Martin is one of the most brilliant writers alive today and he didn’t write his story and then add some shiny sprinkles (illicit sex scenes) to get female audience to make his books into the top selling lists. HBO stayed pretty true to the story lines and actually it probably has less sex than the books judging from what I saw in the first episode. It’s also bizarre to suggest that HBO can attract more women by showing scenes of incest, rape and a midget surrounded by naked women. Last I checked, most of internet porn is being consumed by men.

I am not surprised there may be a few TV writers clueless enough to write reviews like that. I am just surprised that a publication like NY Times employs editors who let their writer post such a ludicrous piece go up on their site.  Also if you are going to write a spectacularly uninformed negative review of a very popular entity (book, author – it really doesn’t matter since really great writers see themselves as one with their books), you should at least learn to write well enough that readers will go away thinking you might just have a point.

You can write scathing reviews that are worth reading if you are a good writer. Read Dwight Garner’s review of The 4 -Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss. That’s how you write a negative review, full of mockery  and insults, that’s worthy of reading. Ms. Bellafante can learn a thing or two from Dwight Garner even if she insists to keep her absurd ’personal opinion’ that women just don’t want to read fantasy novels.

But please, whatever you do, don’t write a review of Malcolm Gladwell’s next book that goes along the lines of “Women don’t read non-fiction. I don’t know a single woman who enjoys non-fiction. Malcolm Gladwell added fashion and sex topics to throw a bone to the other half of population”.

-A Woman who reads books regardless of whatever aisle they were shelved on.

There are many tips and tricks to get you started writing out there. Participating in projects like NanoWrimo (National Novel Writing Month) or making a New Year’s resolution (you can even take a contract out with stickk.com on yourself) can help you but these are just goals. They only tell you that you have to write certain number of words every day. They don’t give you a real practical way to actually start.

Your new year resolution to write every day can be good for deciding whether you should sit in front of your computer and launch your word editor or you should sit on the couch and turn on the TV. They help at the moment when you are getting up from your dinner table.

Now you are at the computer, staring into a blank screen. Pure, pristine and massive.  This blank screen is staring at you, almost mocking. You stare back, feeling quite lost. You feel like you will never fill this blank space, let alone finish writing what you intend to write.

That’s why I need a tool that’ll get me start typing and keep typing and not delete anything I have typed so far. Something that will just keep my fingers moving.  Actually I would not mind a word processor that won’t let me delete words. If I press ‘delete’ or ‘backspace’ keys, it should cross out the characters instead of making them disappear. Make that screen look full, even filled with mistakes or false starts. Then whenever I hit 50, 100 words, give me something that will make me smile and feel good. Encourage me to keep going.

Give me a word processor that will nudge me to get started in the first place and keep me going. One that will stop me from opening up a browser and looking up on the internet on one thing or other and I realize “Ohh, I haven’t written anything in last 5 minutes.”

That’s my wish for 2011.

Here is one more reason why someone should quit their startup.

You are not an optimistic person in general.

Founding a startup is hard. You can’t be pessimistic. You can be cautious. But you can’t be negative.  You have to be positive and optimistic by nature. Otherwise, you will get knocked down by fear, anxiety and worry every single day.

Startups are full of uncertainties. You will encounter many people who doubt your vision, well meaning advisors who suggest complete opposite of what you set out to do, customers who say no and many things that don’t go your way. You can’t lose momentum every time you hear something you don’t want to hear. In a startup, if you are the type of person who needs hours or days to recover from a setback, your startup will never get to where it needs to be. There just isn’t enough time or mental energy to not be optimistic.

From my exposure to many Techstars, YCombinator  and Boston area startups, one personality trait I keep noticing among successful founders is optimism. They just seem to have this relentless optimism that normal people tend to lack. You need at least one person on your founding team who is relentlessly optimistic every single day!

And if you don’t have it, you might be able to start a startup but you won’t enjoy the ride. Then what’s the point of starting a startup if you are not going to enjoy the experience when the risk is higher and the work is harder.